Absinthe Recipes

Absinthe comes with an exciting history. Absinthe was made in the area of Couvet, in Switzerland, during the late 18th century by a French doctor who utilized it as being an elixir or tonic for his patients. By 1805 the Absinthe recipes had got into the hands of Henri-Louis Pernod who started distilling it into his factory in Pontarlier in France.

Various manufacturers of the Green Fairy (Absinthe's nickname) used different recipes and ingredients. Other herbs used in Absinthe production absinthekit involved calamus root, mint, cloves, nutmeg, roman wormwood, anise seed, coriander, sweet flag and licorice. The herb wormwood, Artimesia Absinthium, was always used in the making of pre-ban Absinthe as it was the substance that gave Absinthe its characteristic bitter taste, along with its name.

Wormwood has got the chemical thujone that was believed to be much like THC in the drug cannabis. Thujone is psychoactive and can cause psychedelic effects when ingested in large quantities. Anise seed and fennel seed both contain anethole which is reported to be psychoactive and Angelica root is grown as being a drug in Lapland. Absinthe is a mysterious mix of sedatives and stimulants, no surprise that artists and writers such as Van Gogh and Oscar Wilde believed that it provided them their genius and inspiration! "A clear headed drunkenness" is how being drunk on Absinthe have been referred to.

Absinthe was notoriously forbidden in France in 1915 when Prohibitionists claimed that it would ruin the land and send everyone insane. However, studies show that drinking Absinthe is just as safe as drinking any of the other strong alcoholic drinks such as whisky and vodka. Absinthe is mainly alcohol and just contains minute quantities of wormwood and also the other herbs so, if consumed in moderation, is no real hazard to health.

Self-made Absinthe Recipes

There are many Absinthe recipes on the web using different herbs and different methods - steeping, filtering etc. but making Absinthe from home from plants, dried herbs or essential oils is not to be recommended. Why?
- Absinthe should be distilled.
- You don't have any manner of understanding the thujone content of your completed Absinthe - a tad risky.

It is much better to buy either a high quality Absinthe, being sure that it has the vital ingredient wormwood, or to buy an Absinthe kit which is made up of Absinthe essences which have previously been distilled.

You can also buy Absinthe in the USA now - Breaux's label "Lucid" is legal in the USA.

To produce Absinthe making use of these kits you just mix 20ml of the Absinthe essence with a neutral alcohol like Everclear or vodka and that is exactly it - finished, your won bottle of Green Fairy.

Simple and easy to utilize and, since these essences are the very same as the ones sold to distilleries, you are aware that you are getting a good, top-quality product.

If you do some searching online there are lots of cocktail Absinthe recipes like Ernest Hemingway's famous "Death in the Afternoon" - Absinthe and champagne. Get pleasure from discovering and mixing your cocktails.